23five Incorporated presents the 15th annual Activating The Medium festival in collaboration with Art Practical, The Lab, and the San Francisco Art Institute.
Featuring:
Relay for Death (North Carolina)
Danishta Rivero (San Francisco)
Jen Boyd (Vallejo, California)
Performances begin at 8pm
$10 - $15 sliding scale
Also featuring homemade treats by Delicatrocities, a nomadic offering of deliciously edible atrocities!
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Relay for Death
Relay For Death is a project comprised of twin sisters from the American South. Due to close proximity since inception the two have been fated to act as physical witness-one for the other - of certain pre-birth awarenesses. Embodied psychic imprints not allowing for the comfort of forgetting. Where the sense is retained, always looming, though not fully realized in the nervous half -known swarm that seems to surround them and their sound. Making references to numerous styles but conforming fully to none, the underlying coherence of this post-industrial project rests on a metaphysical vision rather than a stylistic approach. Upon hearing the often bleak and unsympathetic, sometimes frenzied arch of their recordings and live sets which are here and there interspersed with stabs of unrelenting beauty one can easily depict this duo as an atrophied hand that resignedly pushes the sinking trash sound boundary or matter-of-factly points at our existence as a terrible dream toward and everlasting reality. Their LP Birth of an Older Much More Ugly Christ (2010) on Hanson records is highly acclaimed in the genre; and They Are Heating Up The Ovens Get the Fuck Out Now (2011) released by No Rent Records is a disquieting and considered elaboration on their work.
Danishta Rivero
Danishta Rivero is a musician and sound artist who resides in San Francisco. She performs solo improvisations on the Hydrophonium, a water-based electro-acoustic percussion instrument. Danishta also does vocals and digital processing in Blood Wedding, a just intonation noise duo with Chuck Johnson on steel guitar and modular synth. Through the years, she has been involved in various music projects. Most notably, she was lead vocalist of progressive metal band Aghora (1997-2006), and she co-founded Optiphonal Wonder Machine, a multimedia collaboration with Jennifer Rannells.
www.danishtarivero.com
Jen Boyd
Jen Boyd is a sound artist living in Vallejo, California. She spends time recording sounds in her environment and then arranges them into layered soundscapes. In these pieces, some sounds unfold naturally while others are processed. Jen uses contact microphones to explore the textures and timbres in trees and other found objects. Many of her soundscapes seek to give depth to these delicate sounds. Although her work mostly relies on 'natural' sounds she uses a wide variety of sound sources to paint sonic pictures for the listener. Jen holds a BFA in composition and music technology from CalArts and a MFA in electronic music and recording media from Mills College.
www.jenboyd.org
